Bill could end cruel slaughter of horses

Beauty was a ‘throwaway’, a horse nobody seemed to want, slaughter bound in a feedlot. ‘Well, I wanted her!’ says the lady who rescued her. A federal bill protecting U.S. horses from slaughter called the SAFE Act is currently pending. Please contact Washington today to support it.

“Bill could end cruel slaughter of horses” says the title of a letter to the Editor to “The Columbus Dispatch”

Written by PEGGY KAPLAN, it reads:

Their names were Blondie and Anna. Both quarter horses, one a palomino and one jet black. They were champion barrel racers from Utah in their day, before retiring with their owner just outside of Columbus.

When the owner got Alzheimer’s, her adult children found a farmer who said he would find them good homes. Anna was 20 years old and Blondie 19. Both horses had such a bond that they never left each other’s side, even though Anna was so crippled she could barely walk. Blondie would put her head on Anna’s back as Anna lay on the ground.

Instead of finding them homes, he prepared to send them to slaughter, knowing he could make some money from them.

Because Anna could never make the crowded trailer ride to Sugar Creek Auction, I bought her from the farmer, paid a veterinarian to humanely euthanize her and had her cremated. Such a sad ending, but at least her life didn’t end in agony and terror on the brutal and cruel slaughterhouse floor.

It is time for this grisly industry to be shut down for good.

We should all contact our U.S. senators and representatives to urge them to co-sponsor the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act (H.R. 1904/S 541), which will end cruel slaughter of America’s horses, as well as their export for slaughter abroad.

Yes, we had some good news last week at the State level when New Mexico denied the wastewater permit necessary to start slaughtering horses at Valley Meat Co. of Roswell.

But there was also bad news. A handful of Utah lawmakers decided that the State’s “ranches and ranges are riddled with too many worthless horses . . . that has them considering whether slaughterhouses would help solve what has become a ‘soft market in hard economic times,’ . . .”

In the meantime, there are reportedly [now] three States primed to start slaughtering horses just three days following an August 2, 2013 hearing.

The judge will decide whether to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent plants from opening.

The bid for the restraining order has been filed by the Humane Society of the United States, Front Range Equine Rescue, the Marin Humane Society, the Horses for Life Foundation, Return to Freedom, and five private individuals.

They are suing the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) under the National Environmental Protection Act, alleging the agency failed to conduct the necessary environmental review before authorizing horse slaughterhouses to operate.

None of these State battles would be taking place if Congress had followed the will of the people instead of sponsored lobbyists and outlawing horse slaughter and export for slaughter.

The defunding of horse meat inspections is a yearly “fix” and must be renewed by Congress annually. We see when paid politicians take a knife to it, how easy it is to cut it out of the Ag Department’s budget bill. The defunding effort, while we are grateful for it, has a major loophole. It does not bar horses from being exported for slaughter. The SAFE Act — like similar federal legislation before it — closes this deadly loophole.

We ask you, right here, right now, to show your commitment to the end of the slaughter of U.S. horses and support the SAFE Act. If you truly love horses and hate their slaughter, you will not hesitate to take a few minutes of your time to do this.

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8 thoughts on “Bill could end cruel slaughter of horses”

I’m really tired of people using slaughter as an option for all those “unwanted” horses they complain about. Fact is that slaughter has ALWAYS still been an option (if those cruel and subhuman people want to choose it) and there is no connection with slaughter and people starving or abandoning their horses. Canada has several slaughter houses and there is still a huge problem with hoarding, starving, and abandoning horses in that country.

Or perhaps it was someone hedging his bet…if he can’t kill horses, maybe he can collect insurance for damage to the building.

He has blamed the pro-horse public for ‘vilifying’ him in the media and with officials, which I find slightly silly: Horse Slaughter is, by it’s very existence, definition and associations, villainous.

Personally, as frustrating as we all find this monstrous movement toward ‘processing’, I can’t think of why anyone would risk branding all of those who support the Living Horse as eco-terrorists.

“The Roswell Daily Record reports a fire Saturday that burned part of the exterior of Valley Meat Co.’s building and damaged a refrigeration unit appeared to have been deliberately set.”

No doubt VMC will blame advocates when it is more likely that it is someone connected to them because they know they are never going to open to slaughter horses and they reportedly have no money to re-open without horse slaughter backers. Hmmm. Wonder if that’s true?

That is interesting Barbara. I had not thought of that. No point slaughtering horses for their meat if you cannot store until you sell it. What do you bet they insured it when they converted it for horse slaughter? Will be interesting to see who did it.

Actually many of the Roswell people commented after the resident shot that horse in cold blood (Sappington) stated that they were going to burn it down. That was actually in some of their comments…. so they made good on it. I dont think it was anybody related to the slaughterhouse though

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